Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tree of Life Day 51: Matthew 5-7

Disclaimer: I absolutely love this passage of the Scripture. If I could encourage you to memorize a passage in the Bible, this would be the one. I once preached a series on this - a series that lasted a mere 37 weeks. Three chapters. 37 weeks. It was life-changing for me and for many who tolerated it.

Of all the things I love about what is typically called the Sermon on the Mount, this is my favorite: it's relevance. Jesus' teaching is simply bursting with it.

Anger. Lust. Marriage. Language. Spiritual growth. Religious phonies. Worry. Discernment. Relationships. Looking ahead. And on and on I could go - in fact I did, for 37 weeks.

I think most people read the Sermon like it's a religious treatise on morality from a guy who lived a long time ago. They have no idea of the relevance that is right before them if they will simply take Jesus seriously and at His Word.

After all, He did say that He came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it. And for those of us with Jesus living on the inside, that same kind of Law-fulfilling impulse is in us. And that is the path along which transformed people walk - a walk they make with their everyday, run of the mill, standard issue lives, not the lives they wish they were living or they portray to be living. Real life. But it all begins with taking Him seriously.